


352 Error

by tomurai



Category: Mr. Robot (TV)
Genre: Brainweird, Episode Tag, Episode s03e06 eps3.5_kill-process.inc, Gen, Mental Health Issues, Reality Issues, a lot of programming references
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-09
Updated: 2017-12-09
Packaged: 2019-02-12 13:34:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 620
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12960357
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tomurai/pseuds/tomurai
Summary: This shouldn't have happened. This isn't right. This shouldn't be real.(Elliot, after the E Corp facility explosions.)





	352 Error

**Author's Note:**

> A 352 Windows error means "The restart operation failed."
> 
> this is a little bit different from my other mr. robot works. i just needed to write something and this is the result. not super proofread since i wrote this in maybe 20 minutes at 6 AM, so if you spot any errors please let me know. 
> 
> warnings for elliot doubting reality and the emotional aftereffects of this episode. there's a lot of self-blaming. 
> 
> (also i have no idea what's going to happen next episode but i want darlene to be okay)

There’s something wrong. Not with his code, this time; the source code that holds him all together is running and functional, and even though it’s got errors and things missing it still compiles, and Elliot’s accepted that this is how he is, now. 

The world is what is wrong. Everything is tangled and missing bits. It’s corrupted data. 

_None of this was supposed to happen._

Nobody should have died. (Elliot and Mr. Robot had _fixed it_ ) Angela shouldn’t have done...any of what it was she did. (She’s been his best friend since childhood but he’s scared that he doesn’t know her anymore.) Darlene shouldn’t have talked to the FBI. (She’s his _sister_ , it’s been them against the world since before his memories even started shorting out, how could she betray them?)

(His mother shouldn’t have said the words “He deserved to die.” His father shouldn’t have died. His father shouldn’t have hidden his illness. Angela’s mom shouldn’t have died. Neither of them should have been exposed to what they were in E Corp’s plant.)

He can’t blame this on Mr. Robot now. He can’t say Evilcorp did this because they didn’t, really. He could blame Whiterose and the Dark Army but they wouldn’t have done this if he had just _left the files alone_. 

The world is broken, corrupted meaningless strings of data that run on past the monitor could ever cover, lines that used to mean something but are now just useless noise. And it’s Elliot’s fault. 

How could he fuck up this badly. How could he kill thousands of people. (“The death toll is still rising,” says the newscaster with their perfect lifeless face and rehearsed distressed voice and Elliot wants to pull the hair out of his head.)

He has to be missing something, some big sign that says _This is all a joke, Mr. Robot set it up to trick you and really everyone is okay_. Part of him (the part that thought _we need to work with Mr. Robot, not against him_ ) has already realized, is taking in the information and trying to churn out a plan and he resents it because he, they, Mr. Robot, whoever, have killed people, now. 

(He’d been so relieved to find out Tyrell was alive. It was okay for him to get shot, it was his due, if it meant he hadn’t killed somebody. It didn’t matter if it had been Mr. Robot running his body or not, it was still him, still Elliot.)

Someone has to know. Someone has to be able to say what’s happened. Someone has to be a safe base to touch down and let himself fall apart in front of. Not Darlene, not right now, not with her betrayal still ripping into him (it hurts more because she lied, because she didn’t come to him first – was it Mr. Robot that scared her, or him? She’d never given a straight answer). Not Angela, not when she’d looked at him and said “Everyone will be okay” like she somehow believed it (what had she _done_?). 

Who else – Krista. Krista would help, Krista was normal and sane and maybe even if she couldn’t help she’d be able to tell him what was going on. He could go to Krista and he could tell her and she would know what to do. 

He runs, without even telling Them. He has to get there before this gets worse, before the world breaks any further into static and broken strings of code. He has to know whether this is real or not (like protesters marching in Times Square, Mr. Robot up on a screen saying “Everything will be fine”). 

He doesn’t think he can fix this, this time.


End file.
